Untourage #3

Third Untourage episode at The Institute of Genetic Medicine, Newcastle University

A web series by Baltan Laboratories

In the third episode of Untourage, we move to England to the Institute of Genetic Medicine of Newcastle University. Here, Louise Mackenzie, an artist and PhD researcher at Northumbria University, guides a tour of her artistic research made in collaboration with the Institute.

She explains her scientist colleagues, who work in the same lab, what is her approach and how artistic research differs from the scientific one, even if it shares sometimes the same processes. For our web series, this is a step further, since the artist in this case already works inside a scientific institution, so she's already bringing her different point of view during her collaboration. Nevertheless, the result is almost the same, different languages but common procedures: a first step towards interdisciplinary research?
Location: The Institute of Genetic Medicine (IGM) was established in 2001 as the Institute of Human Genetics and is one of seven Newcastle University research institutes within the Faculty of Medical Sciences and Newcastle Biomedicine.

Untourage is a web series of videos of tours guided by artists/designers or scientists/technologists, depending on the tour location. The guide is challenged to explain something outside their expertise in a playful way to a savvy public. Each video captures highlights of a live experiment that serves as a catalyst for interdisciplinary discussion. An artist might ‘misinterpret’ scientific research. A scientist might ‘fail’ at describing conceptual art. These ‘failures’, or knowledge gaps, offer an opportunity for insight through alternative perspectives.
The purpose of the series is to convey Baltan philosophy in a playful way: encouraging cross-pollination between disciplines and showing that ‘failure’ is not always a bad thing: it is an opportunity to learn and gain new knowledge.

Are you interested in the web series? Do you want to propose yourself as the next untour guide? Do you want to host the new episode in your broad-minded company / cultural institution / museum? Send an email to: lorenzo@baltanlaboratories.org